Pope Leo XIV reopens sealed papal apartment
The official reopening took place on 11 May, following the Regina Caeli prayer, in the presence of top Vatican officials, including Cardinal Kevin Farrell and Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
Sealed since the death of Pope Francis on 21 April, the apartment's fate remains uncertain, as Pope Leo XIV has yet to confirm whether he will live there.
The gesture, rich in symbolism, marks a key step in the transition of papal authority and raises questions about the new pontiff's approach to tradition and simplicity.
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Euronews
4 days ago
- Euronews
Why has Pope Leo XIV started a new ‘green Mass' tradition?
Pope Leo XIV held what has been dubbed the first 'green' papal Mass on Wednesday, using a new set of prayers imploring care for God's creation. The Mass, in the gardens of the Vatican's new ecological educational centre at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo, indicated a strong line of ecological continuity with Pope Francis, who made environmental protection a hallmark of his pontificate. The private Mass was celebrated for the Laudato Si centre, named for Francis' 2015 environmental encyclical, in which the first pope from the Global South blasted the way wealthy countries and multinational corporations had exploited the Earth and its most vulnerable people for profit. The pontiff approved the new Mass formula 'for the care of creation,' directing it to be added to the list of 49 Masses that have been developed over centuries for a specific need or occasion. Mass is the central act of worship in Catholicism, recalling Jesus's actions at the Last Supper. Officials said it was crafted in response to requests stemming from Francis' encyclical, which has inspired a whole church movement and foundation to educate, advocate and sensitise the world to the biblically mandated call to care for nature. What has Pope Leo XIV said about climate change? Pope Leo XIV, history's first US-born pope, has indicated he intends to further Francis' ecological legacy. A longtime missionary in Peru, Pope Leo XIV experienced firsthand the effects of climate change on vulnerable communities and has already spoken out about the need for climate justice for Indigenous peoples, in particular. In a message for the church's annual day of prayer for creation, Pope Leo XIV blasted the "injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity." He made no equivocations about what or who was to blame, identifying 'climate change provoked by human activity.' 'As yet, we seem incapable of recognising that the destruction of nature does not affect everyone in the same way. When justice and peace are trampled underfoot, those who are most hurt are the poor, the marginalised and the excluded,' he wrote in the message, released last week. Pope Leo XIV advances solar farm plan for the Vatican Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass during the first days of his vacation at Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town overlooking Lake Alban in the cool hills south of Rome. He arrived on Sunday and will spend an initial two weeks there before returning to the Vatican and then heading back in August. In another sign of his environmental commitment, Pope Leo XIV has indicated he plans to execute one of Pope Francis' most important ecological legacies: The development of a 430-hectare field in northern Rome into a solar farm that would generate enough electricity to meet the Vatican's needs and thus make Vatican City the world's first carbon-neutral state. The development would require an investment of just under €100 million, officials say, and needs the approval of the Italian parliament since the territory enjoys extraterritorial status that needs to be extended. Last year, Francis tasked a commission of Vatican officials with developing the Santa Maria di Galeria site, which was long the source of controversy because of electromagnetic waves emitted by Vatican Radio towers there. Pope Leo XIV visited the site in June and called it a 'wonderful opportunity.' He told RAI state television that the creation of such a farm would 'set a very important example: we are all aware of the effects of climate change, and we really need to take care of the whole of creation, as Pope Francis has taught so clearly.'
Euronews
5 days ago
- Euronews
Zelenkskyy and Pope Leo XIV suggest Vatican as peace talks venue
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday discussed the Vatican as a possible location to host peace talks to end Russia's full-scale invasion. Zelenskyy held talks with the pope at his summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo ahead of the fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference taking place on Thursday and Friday in Rome. The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV and Zelenskyy discussed the conflict and "the urgent need for a just and lasting peace". "The Holy Father expressed his sorrow for the victims and renewed his prayers and closeness to the Ukrainian people, encouraging every effort aimed at the release of prisoners and the search for shared solutions," a Vatican statement said. "The Holy Father reiterated the willingness to welcome representatives of Russia and Ukraine to the Vatican for negotiations." The United States had indicated the Vatican could host possible peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, but Moscow hasn't accepted it. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he thanked the pope for the Vatican's efforts to help reunite children taken by Russia after Moscow's 2022 invasion. He asked for continued help and prayers "to get back our children stolen by Russia during this war." 'Senseless war' Pope Francis had named an envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to try to facilitate the return of children and find "paths to peace" between the two sides. After an initial burst of shuttle diplomacy and visits to Kyiv, Moscow, Washington and Beijing, Zuppi's efforts appear to have slowed, at least in the public sphere. The Russian government has faced international condemnation over unlawful deportations of Ukrainian families, including children, to Russia following Putin's order for Russian troops to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Ukraine has been able to verify the deportation of more than 19,500 Ukrainian children to Russia. Only 1,350 have so far been returned home, with each return mediated by a third-party state, notably the Vatican, Qatar and South Africa. The Vatican has not disclosed details about its efforts on helping the return of the Ukrainian children or how many children have been returned. Pope Leo XIV has been a strong supporter of Ukraine and denounced the "senseless war," meeting recently with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops and pilgrims. "It is not easy to find words of consolation for the families who have lost loved ones in this senseless war," he told the bishops who visited last week. "I imagine it is also for you, who are in daily contact with people wounded in heart and flesh."
LeMonde
13-06-2025
- LeMonde
Facing China, Leo XIV follows in the footsteps of Pope Francis by appointing a bishop in Fuzhou
Bishop appointments rarely attract much attention, but in China, each one is closely watched and commented on by the global Catholic community, as they are seen as indicators of either warming or cooling relations between Beijing and the Vatican. The recent appointment in the Diocese of Fuzhou, a provincial capital on China's Southeast coast facing Taiwan, was especially significant: it was the first to be approved by the new pope, Leo XIV, who was elected on May 8. On Wednesday, June 11, the Vatican announced that six days earlier, on June 5, it had appointed an auxiliary bishop in this city of nine million people. At the same time, the official Church, overseen by the Chinese Communist Party, held a ceremony on that Wednesday to formally acknowledge the appointment. These two gestures of mutual goodwill occurred in a context that is often tense. China remains the only country where bishops are jointly appointed by local authorities and the Vatican, under a 2018 agreement intended to ease tensions between the two states and to end the system of two parallel Churches – one "official," the other "underground." Elsewhere in the world, this is an exclusive prerogative of the Holy See.
